Prison Reform Movement

The United States Criminal Justice System is flawed- broken beyond repair. Prisons should be abolished. Treatment and social safety nets could effectively replace what we have in place now. Until society can finally come to terms with no prisons and jails, we will continue to advocate for Prison and Criminal Justice reforms.

Posts here are NOT always my work. See disclaimer in the 'about' section. This blog serves as a Public Service Announcement.

After 18 years, Pelican Bay prison abuse case to close

A long-running legal action that exposed widespread abuses at the state’s highest security prison and forced major reforms within California’s department of corrections is drawing to a close.

In the coming days, federal District Judge Thelton Henderson is expected to terminate litigation in a case that began when inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison filed a class-action lawsuit over claims of widespread physical abuse, poor medical and mental health care, and appalling conditions in the prison’s notorious security housing unit.

In a sweeping decision with national implications, Henderson ruled in 1995 that Pelican Bay inmates had been subjected to excessive violence and cruel and unusual punishment.

“The Eighth Amendment’s restraint on using excessive force has been repeatedly violated at Pelican Bay, leading to a conspicuous pattern of excessive force,” he wrote.

That followed harrowing courtroom testimony of prison staff routinely beating, burning and even shooting inmates and getting away with it. Mentally ill inmates were locked away in isolation units with almost no contact with doctors or other staff.

The trial also included evidence that Pelican Bay guards had staged an inmate riot while Henderson was visiting the facility.

Federal prosecutors alleged the guards were trying “to show Judge Henderson that Pelican Bay is a dangerous place, and that he should not interfere with the guards in running the prison.”

Henderson ordered the prison to remove any seriously mentally ill or retarded inmates from the security housing unit. He also appointed a federal monitor to oversee changes in the way California deploys force in prison and how it investigates and disciplines prison staff.

The closing of the case – known as Madrid v. Gomez – is a rare piece of good news for a prison system battling budget cuts and court orders to reduce overcrowding and improve inmate health care.

“We have both the plaintiff’s and the federal court’s concurrence that we’re running a competent system, one that’s fair to our employees and fair to inmates. And one that results in an internal justice system that the public can trust,” Cate said.

Steve Fama of the Prison Law Office, which filed the original lawsuit, noted a “dramatic difference in the treatment of prisoners” in the decade and a half since Henderson’s ruling.

“When we were litigating Madrid, they were literally killing people on a fairly regular basis with guns,” recalled Don Specter, the Prison Law Office’s director. “That has basically stopped. I have no doubt that a lot of lives have been saved as a result of the case.”

Specter noted one weakness in the Madrid ruling: it didn’t outlaw California’s use of security housing units–windowless chambers where alleged gang members and other inmates spend nearly all their time locked alone in spartan cells.

“The ruling said that certain inmates with mental illness must be moved out of the units, but others could remain,” he said.

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Prison Reform Movement

I am Against the death penalty, believe that the United States Judicial System is flawed, yet fixable; Prison Reform and Sentencing Reform should be major agenda's for each state- we need to stop warehousing prisoners and ready those who are going to parole. I believe in Restorative Justice.
Inmate rehabilitation improves public safety and lowers prison costs.
“We have to care because we can't afford not to".
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Prison Reform Movement

The United States Criminal Justice System is flawed- broken beyond repair. Prisons should be abolished. Treatment and social safety nets could effectively replace what we have in place now. Until society can finally come to terms with no prisons and jails, we will continue to advocate for Prison and Criminal Justice reforms.

Posts here are NOT always my work. See disclaimer in the 'about' section. This blog serves as a Public Service Announcement.